The Last Bell On Friday
by ScorpionCyclone555
Summary: "We're both high-school teachers and our students ship us, but I won't let them tell you."


Last Bell On Friday

It's the last period of the day and Toby swipes at the sweat beading down his forehead, dreading about what is sure to be discussed in the next hour before the bell rang. It happens everyday, without a doubt, no 'maybe' or 'perhaps' about it.

His students file in like they usually do and sit at their assigned seats, preparing to start their Biology lesson. It seems calm and peaceful at first glance, but from Toby's standpoint, they were all a bunch of devils, spawned from the demon himself. Anyone would say it was an overreaction, but he knows better. He's taught this class for half a year or so and as the days went on they seemed to get more comfortable around him. He viewed it as a good thing at first, but that was before they started feeling comfortable enough to discuss his personal life with him. He didn't want to discuss his life with them, or anyone for that matter.

The last couple of students rush in and the tardy bell rings. He takes a few deep breaths before glancing up from his computer to take roll. Everyone was there, whoopdeedoo for him. Maybe, just maybe they would realize how much of a nuisance they were and maybe they wouldn't bring up what he knew they were eventually going to bring up.

"So when the chloroplasts convert the light energy from the Sun into food-" he pauses and frowns when he sees Michelle waving her hand frantically above her head. He just looks at her with an unamused frown as she continues to wave at him. It wasn't going to be about the lesson, it was just a simple fact and he didn't have to be a mind reader to figure that out.

"What do you want Michelle?" He knew what was coming, he didn't even have to ask. 'Why did he even address her? Maybe he could have ignored her and continued with the lesson, why was he such an idiot?'

"Have you asked out Ms. Quinn yet?" She asked, letting her arm fall back to her side with little grace.

"No I haven't, now let's-" he's interrupted again, this time by a series of whines and complaints from the entire class. 'Of course'.

"Why not?" Michelle whines, looking as if she were about to cry. She did it almost everyday, they all did it everyday. They had the same exact conversation. Every. Day. 'Why did they expect a different answer? Why do they insist on it?'

"Because I didn't want to," he answers bluntly. Hoping it would end the conversation, but knowing good and well otherwise.

"That's a lie!" Josh accuses, standing up abruptly from his chair at the back of the class, "you totally have a thing for her!" Everyone voices their agreement and nods along while Toby simply tries to stutter out an answer. This was not something they pointed out very often and he still wasn't quite used to it.

"I most definitely do not!" He insists, as his cheeks turn a shade of pink none of them ever knew he could make.

"Curtis and Quinn sitting in a tree K-I-S-S-I-N-G" Michele sings, making ridiculous kissy faces and noises with her lips.

"Stop it," he groans.

"First comes love, then comes marriage-"

"Please stop," he almost begs.

"Then comes a baby in a baby carriage-"

"Please no." 'Why him'.

"Team Quintis! Yay!" The whole class joins in for the last bit, singing happily at the top of their lungs and a few cheers could be heard from the back of the class. Toby hangs his head in his hands, leaning against the wall behind his desk, then slowly speaks with a shaky voice.

"Ms. Quinn… is to never hear about this. Ever!"

***OOO***

"What do you mean by 'shipping'?" Sylvester asks, raising his eyebrows while taking a bite out of his organic turkey and cheese sandwich; his usual.

"That's what I said!" Toby exclaims, resting his head in his hands in defeat. He ignores the lunch set in front of him for the time being, there was a much more important issue that needed to be addressed.

"Well, shipping means that they think that you two would be a cute couple. They want you to get together. That's it," Paige answered, pulling out a seat from the table and sitting down to join them for lunch. "They were doing it to me and Walter for a while, but they eventually quit when they found out it wasn't going to go anywhere," she says with a shrug of her shoulders. Both Toby and Sylvester give her a look.

"It's because the two of you are a hopeless case and won't stop prancing around each other like confused kangaroos," Toby answered with an unamused frown. Paige shot him a glare and he threw his hands up in defense. "All I'm saying is that they have a reason to 'ship' you guys, they have no reason to 'ship' me and Ms. Quinn."

"I'm very doubtful of that, I believe it's actually the opposite in fact," Walter joins in, sitting down in his seat next to Paige. Dressed in his usual button up shirt and tie. Paige nods along in agreement, "you two are a well fit couple and you compliment each others personalities very nicely. Statistically speaking, it's more likely for the two of you to end up together, getting married and having ki-" Paige stops him with a firm elbow to the ribs. He grunted in annoyance, but got the picture after she changed the subject.

"Believe it or not, the students aren't the only ones rooting for you guys," she leans in closer to him and speaks in a whisper, "I'm rooting as well. I think you guys would be adorable together." Toby only groans in response, dropping his head in his hands again and giving up completely on the idea of convincing them otherwise.

"I'm not gonna start taking advice from a science geek and a hardcore fangirl." Toby answers flatly, ignoring any other comments they made.

"Hey!" Walter protests, "you teach a science class as well."

"It's Biology. Physics and Biology are two completely different things," Toby insists, finally taking a bite out of his leftover pizza brought from home.

After a few minutes of silence between the four teachers, Cabe, the gym teacher, throws open the door to the teacher's lounge and takes a seat at the table with the usual strut in his step.

"What are the geeks talking about today?" He grins. Sitting down and throwing his hands behind his head.

"Nothi-" Toby starts, but Sylvester beats him to it.

"Toby's in love with Happy and he's the only one that can't see it," he spills. Toby gawks at him, mouth wide and everything. He couldn't believe he dared to say that.

"That's not tr-" he starts again, but is yet again interrupted.

"Seriously?" Cabe laughs, "I thought they were dating this whole time." At that everyone laughs and Toby's face gets continuously pink as he eats his lunch in defeat. The laughing and gossiping comes to an abrupt stop when a certain person sits down, and Toby can't help the heat rising back into his cheeks from the sight. 'He was a grown man! This was starting to get ridiculous'. Paige nudges him gently with a knowing grin, and he shoots her a glare, while trying to avoid eye contact with the one and only Happy.

"Hey guys," she says. She looks up at everyone wearing large grins, except for Walter, he never smiles unless he's spending alone time with Paige or that kid, Ralph, in his class. Her eyes land on Toby trying to shovel the rest of his food into his mouth as quickly as possible.

"Why's the Doc so red? Did you go to the beach without inviting me again?" She asks, directing her last question to the Doctor himself. He looks up sheepishly and shakes his head.

"No, theses jerks were just teasing me about something that I would rather not talk about," he answers, wiping at his mouth with the napkin, hoping to block her view of his reddening cheeks. He cleans up his area in a rush and stands from his seat, letting the chair skid back behind him.

"I have to go, I'll talk to you guys later. Bye." He's gone after that, and boy is he glad. He wouldn't have been able to stay there much longer. 'Maybe he was falling for the robotics teacher… No, he already HAS...Crap.'

***OOO***

"Why do you always forget to grab your lesson plan. You're practically a genius, but you keep forgetting it in my class," Toby laughs, carrying the class set of paper he had printed out at the office. His printer was broken, and the school hasn't made any attempt to replace it as of yet.

"Don't tease me," Happy states, glaring over at him, carrying her own stack of copy paper she was probably going to use to make paper airplanes during her class. If he didn't already know her, he would probably assume she was a student rather than an actual 's probably why her actual students adored her so much, besides the constant yelling when they annoy her, and Toby has found that it wasn't very hard to accomplish that. When he finishes his inner monologue he turns to her and continues the conversation.

"I just don't know how every time you spend planning period in my class you always forget your actual lesson plan," he pauses before grinning and waggling his brows, "is it because you 'love' me and want to have an excuse to come back and see me," he teased, leaning closer to her. 'Why was he doing this to himself? Why must he do this? Why must he commit himself to this form of torture?'

"No idiot!" Happy scowls, hitting him in the arm, "you just distract me, like all the time." Her tone drops dramatically, almost as if she were whispering the last part.

Toby pauses mid step in the middle of the hallway, processing what she just said while she just kept on going. He was definitely overthinking things.

"Wait! What is that supposed to mean?" He yells after her, jogging to catch up. He can spot a couple of his students with wide smiles, staring, as the two of them walk together. He lowers his voice so they can't overhear, but Happy doesn't seem to get the hint. 'Of course she doesn't'.

"I gotta keep you on your toes somehow Doc," she flashes him, what he can only guess as a flirty grin before opening the door to his classroom and strutting in as if it were her own. He's absolutely dumbstruck and glued to the spot he was standing once again. God, that woman was going to give him a heart attack if she hasn't already. 'Why must she do this to him, he was only human.'

When he's a little more aware of his surroundings he notices the time on his wristwatch. He immediately regrets her being there when the tardy bell rings and he realizes what period it actually was. It was the last period of the day and there they all were; watching with excitement as Happy walks up to Toby's desk and starts rummaging through his things to find what she needed. He could've sworn he heard a high-pitched squeal emit from somewhere in the room. Just his luck. He's never going to hear the end of this now.

"Do you remember where I left it Doc?" She asked from her place underneath the desk. She sat back in his chair and huffed in exasperation.

Toby ignored his students for the time being and walked passed them to reach his desk at the front of the room to assist Happy in her attempts to locate the papers.

"You're the one with the photographic memory," he mumbles, kneeling down beside his desk to open the bottom drawer, "but yes I do know where it is. I put it away when I found it." He stood back up, holding her papers out to her. She rises to her feet and takes them.

"Thanks Curtis," she says, flipping through the pages and giving him a quick pat on the back before exiting the silent classroom. When the door shuts behind her the whole classroom roars to life. Whispers, squeals, laughter, heavy breathing. 'Here we go again'.

"Come on guys, cut it out," Toby rolls his eyes and takes a seat in his chair, watching as his whole classroom basically hyperventilating from excitement. 'There was nothing normal with this class, something must be wrong up in their heads'.

"I can't! You guys are amazing!" Michelle shouts, collapsing back in her chair. 'Yeah, something's wrong up there'.

"You seriously need to get a life," Toby sighs, shaking his head in pity and disappointment. He couldn't tell which anymore.

***Michelle POV***

"You guys, it's almost the end of the year, we're running out of time," Michelle whispers. The freshman class at the high school have been plotting for the past year on how to get their two favorite teachers together. Even some of the upperclassmen have joined in, they were definitely not the first class of students to ship the two dorks together. Everyone Michelle knew, knew who Dr. Curtis and who Ms. Quinn were. The name Quintis was a common term amongst the whole student body, even among some of the teachers. The only one who didn't know was Ms. Quinn herself and that was only because Dr. Curtis claimed that 'if she found out she would probably kill him, and he wasn't ready to die yet'.

"What are we going to do?" Sarah cries in panic. Overdramatic, as always.

"We are going to get them together for sure this time," Michelle says mischievously, "I've already gotten Ms. Dineen and Mr. Dodd in on it, they're going to help us. Here's the plan..."

***OOO***

"Alright, does anyone need help with the lab?" Toby asks, looking around the large space for any raised hands. All he sees are shakes of the head, he's about ready to head back to his desk to kick back and maybe play a couple games of poker online. He hasn't been able to play much lately, with all the lesson plans and grading going on. Not to mention the countless weekends he spends hanging out with the other bunch of dorky teachers at the school. Like always though, there's an interruption as the door swings open and in struts Ms. Quinn. Shortness and all.

A few of the girls in the classroom giggle when they see her walk in and he silently thanked whoever was out there that it wasn't last period. Either way, all eyes turn to him to study his reaction and he realizes just how bad this class is as well, he really thinks they should all get real lives. He's probably said that at least two hundred times that year, things were starting to get a little ridiculous.

"What can I do for you Ms. Quinn?" He asks professionally. Happy simply raises her eyebrows at him in surprise, before pushing past him and walking towards his desk.

"Stop being so serious dope. It's my planning period and I'm bored. I'm gonna hang here for awhile kay." She says, making herself comfortable in his chair and kicking her feet up on his desk.

Toby lets out an unsteady sigh and shakes his head before going over the rest of the instructions for the lab with his class before joining her. By that time she had already pulled on his hoodie he kept in the class in case it got too chilly.

"Why are you wearing my clothes?" he asked suspiciously. 'He was going to play this cool, he wasn't going to overthink it like he seemed to do with everything else she did lately'.

"Well, if you haven't noticed, it's ridiculously cold in here and I didn't bring a warm jacket," she says, rolling up the long sleeves just enough so her tiny hands could poke through.

"It's only like 62 degrees in here," he shrugs, gesturing over to the thermostat.

Happy just gives him 'that' look. He could never figure out what 'that' look meant.

"Hey kids!" she yelled, standing from the seat and drawing all the attention towards the two of them. "Raise your hand if you think this idiot here should raise the temperature by several degrees." Happy raises her hand high, letting the baggy sleeve fall around her arm. Allowing each of his students to get a good look at the Harvard hoodie they always saw on him. He'd be willing to bet that at least 10 phones whipped out to snap a picture, 'Not Good'.

*** Student's POV ***

"I am not even kidding," Sarah whispered, "Michelle is getting them together before the year ends. It's all planned out, everyone is in on it," she grinned, glancing over at the two gathered around Toby's desk. Her heart almost melts.

"Just look at them," she sighs.

Toby had pulled up a chair by that time and was watching over Happy's shoulder as she played a game on his computer. He started laughing hysterically and Happy bit her lip trying not to smile and break her concentration. He drops his head into his hand and you can see the way his whole body shakes in silent laughter. Eventually Happy falls back with an annoyed sigh, crossing her arms over her chest.

Toby stops his laughing and takes the mouse out of her hand, standing up behind her to show her how to do whatever it was she had failed at. When he let go, he started laughing again at the shock on her face. She looked over at him in disbelief before returning her attention to the computer screen.

"Aren't they just perfect together."

"Paige! Seriously, you're like the twentieth person today that has implied any type of romantic relationship going on between me and Curtis. What is up?" Happy freezes mid stride to face the older woman with hands settled angrily on her hips.

Paige's face turns ghost white as she notices the roaming eyes settle on the two of them. The whole hallway seems to go silent as they all waited for her response. She settles for putting her hands up in defense.

"I am not insinuating anything Happy, I am simply stating that the two of you would make a cute couple. Everyone seems to think so," she answered. It didn't seem possible at the time, but it seemed that the entire school froze as she spoke those words. Not a step was taken, and no word was spoken. Things were about to get heated.

Only… the thing anyone least expected happened. Happy blushed a deep crimson red. Now, Paige couldn't be sure if it was from anger or if it was an actual blush, but judging by the fact that she hasn't lashed out yet was a good sign.

"The Doc is to never hear about this," she whispers threateningly with a shaky breath. Regaining her composure and continuing down the hall as if nothing had occurred. Paige simply stood their with wide eyed, along with the rest of the students. Eventually as time passed, and the words were able to sink in, the entire hallway erupted into a quiet applause, and cheers could be heard in the background.

Paige grinned at everyone and walked down the hall. She totally had a thing for him.

"Happy? I'm sort of in the middle of class," Toby says, with a paused gesture directed at the powerpoint being projected on the screen.

The students whisper, unlike their usual silence when she enters his room. She ignores it and strides towards him with an angry glare. She juts an accusing finger into his chest and gets close to his face.

"Have you been spreading rumors about our imaginary relationship in your head," she growls out. He can only attempt to splutter out a response as the room quiets down to a deathly silence. 'Why did this have to happen to him?'

"N-No, I haven't," he shakes his head quickly, throwing his hands up beside his head while also shooting an 'I told you so' glare to the students in the room, "but I think I have a pretty good idea who did." Happy ignores the comment and takes a step away from him and narrowing her eyes.

"All in one day I've been questioned eight different times about our supposed 'relationship," she exaggerates the quotations around the word and rests her hands on her hips, "and one of them was the principal, trying to get me to sign one of those stupid love contracts," she pauses and her face turns red from anger, "are you kidding me! What is wrong with you?! I knew something was wrong, but this?!" She yelled. Before she could continue, Michelle stood to come to Toby's rescue.

"Ms. Quinn, it wasn't Dr. Curtis that spread the rumor... It was me," she spoke, hanging her head in shame and also fear. Who wouldn't fear the almighty Quinn.

Happy silently gazed over at her, before returning her attention to the doctor with his hands still raised defensively above his head.

"Doc? Did you know about this?" She spoke slowly, with a calm voice and if he was being honest with himself, that tone probably scared him more than the angry one. His eyes went wide and he was pretty sure he couldn't speak anymore so he settled for wildly shaking his head left and right. All while his hands stay beside his head.

"Not anything at all?" She asks again with that same tone that could scare any grown man wittless. After a few minutes of trying not to fold under her intense gaze he sighs and drops his hands to his sides while hanging his head.

"Alright, fine," he pauses and rubs his hands down his face, groaning obnoxiously throughout. "Our students ship us, but I didn't let them tell you. Cause I was pretty sure you'd kill me," He says.

Happy gives him another one of those looks and then pivots her body to glance at the students watching with anticipation.

"They… ship us?" She asks slowly. Toby nods his head and bites his lip. 'He didn't want to die, he was too young, he still had a life to liv-'. His thoughts were interrupted.

"Well why don't you give them what they want, maybe then they will stop nagging you about it," Happy answers with a shrug of her shoulders.

"Happy, I don't think you understand, they shi-" He starts but she just groans in annoyance.

"Am I going to have to spell it out for you Doc?" She drags him down by the lapels of his jacket and locks him in a searing, mind-melting kiss… In front of the kids. He didn't care, he actually made an embarrassing squeak like noise in surprise. Her lips were warm and soft, just like he imagined them. Not that he ever did imagine kissing Happy, it was just a secondary thought of his- but God! She was a good kisser. After what felt like hours she finally released her hold on his jacket and began leaning away. He chased her lips and attempted wrapping his arms back around her waist for round two, but she gently pushed them away. She stayed just a few measly centimeters away as she whispered against his lips.

"Maybe we can carry this on later Doc, but right now we're at work and your students just look like they've seen a ghost," she whispers huskily, never making a move to distance herself. When Toby hears her words his eyes snap open in realization and he turns towards his class full of students. Wide eyes, open mouths and phones pointed at their two teachers faces. There was no doubt that in just a few minutes the shared kiss would be groundbreaking news around the entire school.

He took several steps away from Happy and cleared his throat as best he could.

"Are you guys happy now?" He asked. Each being in that room nodded their heads vigorously, without a peep. He sighed to himself, then the bell rang. The last bell of the day.

The entire class filed out in a jiff, trampling over each other to get out of the room to give the two teachers their needed privacy.

"S-so was that just for show or-" Toby began, but Happy hushed him with a hand to his mouth.

"It's the last bell on Friday Doc. We got all weekend, see you at my place in a few." She smirked, patting his cheek before spinning on her heel and strutting out of the room like the badass she was. She's long gone before Toby can even get the words out.

"Oh-okay. Y-Yeah, sure."


End file.
